


Silver Bells

by AsagiStilinski



Series: Queer Wolves [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Presents, Coming Out, Derek is a Christmas Baby, Fluff, Getting Together, Humor, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Non-Evil Peter Hale, Post-Season/Series 06, Private Investigator Stiles Stilinski, Roommates, Still an asshole though, Supportive Derek Hale, Traditions, pansexual werewolves, slightly canon divergent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2019-03-12 04:27:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13539699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: Slowly, Stiles is starting to learn things about Derek's family, the more he learns, the more he wants to help Derek feel closer to them, to have even a shred of what he once had with them, and that leads to his current mission: Recreate the most he can of Derek Hale's childhood Christmases, even if it means running himself ragged, bleeding money, and seeking help from Lord Douche himselfAlso: Pansexual werewolves, coming out, pie, and apparently Derek had two moms





	Silver Bells

**Author's Note:**

> Yoooo, welcome to the very first installment of "Queer Wolves"!! This is going to be a post-6B series with some adjustments to canon, I plan on adding to it as much as I can and although they'll be stand-alone oneshots they WILL be in chronological order (probably) They're going to concentrate on the domestic mythology of the supernatural, especially werewolves (for example, werewolves /totally/ hate perfume because it A. Covers up natural scents and B. Bothers their sensitive noses) and will tend to add alot more queer headcanoning along the way (like Derek having two moms) I don't know how much I'll really get to add to it because I suck at longterm things but I do DEFINITELY plan on doing it :) (Also I know Yu-Gi-Oh wasn't around when Derek was 2 but I was tired and it was a cute headcanon I wanted to add)

"I never realized how much work it would be to put together holiday decorations... and I thought Halloween was alot...."

"It's different with Christmas, you're used to having things like a tree and a wreath and other staples you've had since your childhood, it just doesn't occur to you that when you move out you have to get those things for yourself,"

Leave it to Derek to point that out

Ofcourse to be fair, he had already done this before after moving to New York, or atleast Stiles assumed he had

He supposed he was thankfull for that, it would probably be alot more difficult to get all of this together and organized if they were both starting from scratch without any experience

"I guess so," Stiles muttered, picking up a box of lights and heaving a sigh

"Do you have anything specific in mind for this tree?" Derek asked, taking a Christmas themed welcome mat from the shelf in front of him

"Nothing specific, besides, this isn't MY tree, it's OUR tree, so you should get a say too, although I must warn you, I will have my nerd ornaments, there's a musical X-Files ornament from Hallmark with my name on it," he added, tossing two boxes of lights into the cart

"That's fine, you can do whatever you want with the tree, I don't really care," Derek shrugged back

"Really? Seriously?"

"Yes, why does that surprise you?"

"I don't know.... I guess I just always pictured you more as the traditional type," he explained, starting to glance at some ornaments

He wanted to get some special ones, obviously, but for a big tree and their first year they'd need some cheap filler ones too, boxes of cheap ball ornaments would be a good bargain at this point

"Mm... my mom always said that Christmas was about family and loved ones, so those people should get a say in how you celebrate it," Derek explained

It wasn't often that he talked about his family, hell...

He almost NEVER talked about them, so this was a pretty special occasion

"Yeah?" Stiles asked softly, as if that would really prompt him further

Great going there Stiles

"Yeah.... everyone in our family had their own special thing, we all decided on how to decorate but there were some things that were just.... our own, Laura was mostly in charge of the tree, she liked the traditional look, the rest of us didn't mind it, but we threw in something quirky here and there,"

"That's ... really cool," Stiles said softly, picking up a box of ornaments

"So uh, that's what your mom went with huh? Did your dad have any beleifs about holiday decorating?"

And then, without missing a beat, Derek said something that nearly made Stiles drop the box he was holding

"I didn't have a dad,"

...

Well that was unexpected

"O-Oh... uh, I'm sorry, did he leave when you were really young? Or.. die? But... that doesn't make sense, because of Cora.... do you have different dads or-"

"Stiles, I NEVER had a dad," Derek clarified, looking somewhat amused

Stiles paused, head tilting as if someone had just tossed a calculus problem at him

".... So... you had a single mom? I mean not that that isn't cool-"

"I had two moms," Derek interrupted suddenly, effectively cutting Stiles off and causing his jaw to go slack, eyes to go wide, brain to stop processing

That......

Was definitely unexpected.......

"Seriously? Wow.... that's really awesome! How the hell did I not know that sooner?"

He would have thought he'd heard about it at some point, although to be fair he had never heard anything about a dad either so.....

"Mama was very quiet and shy, she didn't do alot in town like Mom did,"

So if Mom was Talia, then "Mama"...

"What was her name?"

Derek looked fond for a moment, soft and bittersweetly sad, before answering

"Selena," he finally said, still smiling sadly down at the cart before apparently shaking himself out of it and turning back towards the decorations behind him

"That's amazing.... you uh, hiding any other immediate family from me? Got any other siblings or....?"

"No, it's just my sisters,"

Stiles nodded slowly, letting that sink in as he fiddled around with some random ornaments, trying to strike up the courage to ask more

He wanted to learn more about Derek's family, especially when it came to things like holiday traditions, things that Stiles could try to replicate, but he didn't want to risk pushing too hard and hurting his freind....

"So uh, you mentioned that all of you had your own special traditions.... do you mind if I ask what they were?"

He was trying to look as unsuspicious as possible, fiddling with a random wreath that he hadn't even really looked at

Derek was quiet for a moment, eyes elsewhere as he rolled it over in his head

Stiles figured he was probably trying to decide if he should say anything or not

"Mom had this antique tree skirt," he began slowly, feet dragging as he started to push the cart down the aisle

"Mama had a tree topper, an angel, it was almost like an inside joke that the two of them were the two ends of the tree- top and bottom- and we were all in the middle," he added, a small, fond smile on his face

"Did you guys have ornaments for your special things or-"

"Well, we had ornaments, some ornaments... but not as our special things," Derek corrected, taking a little musical snowglobe off of the shelf and giving it a small shake

"Cora had this little Santa Claus, it was kind of a vintage thing actually, she used to put it right under the tree, next to Laura's resin fawn,"

"And you?"

"I... had a train set," he replied slowly

"It went around the tree, it wasn't ... really special, but... I don't know, when I was a kid I really loved it, it played music and lit up and everything,"

"That sounds really cool," Stiles said quietly, slowly placing a hand on Derek's shoulder

"Yeah... it was," Derek agreed, going quiet for a small, breif moment, before clearing his throat and looking down at their list

"We should get a wreath, we haven't picked one out yet,"

And just like that, the moment was over

 

~+~

 

"Stiles, this plan of your's is ridiculous,"

"No, no my plan is PERFECT," Stiles insisted

Scott didn't seem at all believing of that

"Stiles, your plan is terrible, it's never going to work, even if you COULD figure out what Derek's old stuff looked like by talking to Cora, actually GETTING it will be close to impossible, alot of this stuff is probably old, it isn't like you can get it at Walmart,"

"There are ways!" Stiles snorted with irritation

"Even if there are, you can't really think you can just figure out EXACTLY what something looks like just from Cora's description over the phone do you?" Scott argued with a look of what could only be described as "concerned"

Ok, admittedly, that did give Stiles pause, but he had a solution

"It won't BE just over the phone, I'm going to send her pictures before I buy anything,"

Scott still looked more than a little skeptical of all this

"Stiles.... I just don't want you to get hurt... if you get your hopes up for something that probably won't happen-"

"But what if it DOES happen?" Stiles argued back

"What if I make this work and I give Derek the best Christmas EVER?"

"That would be nice... I just don't want you to-"

"I know I know- get my hopes up for something that might not happen, I'm not, I have a back up plan and everything,"

Scott did seem to somewhat relax at that atleast, apparently a backup plan was just what he needed to believe that Stiles wasn't completely and utterly insane

"I still think this plan is insane.... but I'm not going to talk you out of it am I?"

"Nope,"

The werewolf inhaled tightly, offering his freind a slight, warm smile

"Ok, what can I do to help?"

 

~+~

 

"I hope you realize that this plan of your's is RIDICULOUS,"

" **I** hope YOU realize that I'm missing out on motorcycle helmet shopping with Derek for this conversation," Stiles countered, eyebrows raised as he stared at the video feed of Cora on his laptop screen

"...Why is my brother buying a motorcycle helmet...?"

"Scott's Christmas gift,"

The werewolf gave a look of understanding, leaning back in her chair

"Alright, where do we start?"

"How about with the easiest?"

If he started with the easiest and scaled up to the hardest then atleast he would have a chance at giving Derek ONE of the things from his childhood Christmas....

"That would be my mom's tree skirt, it was red and green plaid with 'Merry Christmas' written on it in gold, pretty basic,"

She was right, that WAS pretty basic, he could probably get that at Pottery Barn or something

"Ok, next,"

"Laura's deer, it was pretty simple too, just a fawn made of resin, maybe about the size of your head, it had a pink ribbon around it's neck,"

"Alright, ok, was it sitting or standing or-"

"Laying down, the bottom was flat,"

Ok, that couldn't be TOO hard to find could it?

"Ok, alright, next,"

"Probably Mama's treetopper, it was a vintage angel, it looked REALLY old.... kind of ugly actually,"

"Alright I'm going to need a LITTLE more detail than 'kind of ugly',"

He didn't think he could really go into a store and ask for a tree topper that was "kind of ugly"...

But Cora looked a little... perplexed with how to answer him

"....Old?"

"Let's... let's try with a different description ok? What were the wings like? Metallic? Feathery? Papper?"

"Feathery, definitely, kind of small, it was in a white dress- VERY basic, not really much decoration,"

Ok, now they were cooking with fire here

"Ok, how about hair color?"

This made her look _more_ than a little perplexed

"Um... dark blonde? Maybe brown.... I'm not sure, I'd know it if I saw it... it was painted on though, not actual hair,"

"Alright, anything else?"

"I can't think of anything,"

Ok, it wasn't much to go on, but it would do

"Next?"

"I guess my Santa..."

He nodded slowly, waiting patiently for her to continue as he started writing down the last details she had given onto a notepad

"I... don't really know how to describe it, it was a vintage Santa, so it looked old, jolly..... I don't know,"

Well this was going downhill fast

"Ok, what was it made of? Porcelain? Resin? Plastic?"

"I don't know.... it wasn't really like Laura's deer, it was a little more like a doll,"

"Was it floppy or cuddly or-"

"No no, it was definitely a decoration and not a toy, I just.... don't know how to describe it,"

She looked about as frustrated as Stiles felt, wich wasn't exactly a good sign

"Can you remember ANY details? Any at all?"

"I don't know Stiles, I haven't seen it since I was ten!" she bit

Ok, fair point

"Look, I'm sorry... I just ... I want to do something special for Derek, you know?"

Cora's own shoulders sagged, her eyes looking sad but understanding

"I get it.... and I'm really glad that you're trying so hard to do something so nice for my brother, I just don't know how to help, I mean-"

_"Stiles?"_

CRAP!

He didn't waist a second, immediately shutting the lid on the laptop and staring like a deer in the headlights of life at Derek as he poked his head into the room

"What is it big guy?"

"I heard you talking to someon-"

"Yeah that was just Scott, um... on my phone, we were talking on the phone and now we aren't,"

Derek didn't seem convinced

"It sounded like Cora..."

"You must have imagined that buddy,"

He looked a little concerned, almost pouting as he tilted his head

"But... I could swea-"

"Nope, no Cora here, not at all, Scott's kinda losing his voice though, he was having to talk over barking dogs all day at work,"

Derek narrowed his eyes, clearly not believing him, but apparently deciding it wasn't worth the argument

"I brought dinner, if you want to eat,"

"Yeah! Yeah, I'll be right there, just gotta ... finish what I was writing,"

Derek stared at him for a long, intense moment, as if that was going to make Stiles suddenly spit out the truth, before finally turning and heading back out, allowing Stiles to breathe a sigh of releif

He'd better text an apology to Cora before she sent him some kind of screaming email or something...

 

~+~

 

"What do you think of these? Too serious?"

Derek glanced at the box of Christmas cards Stiles was holding up, head tilting

It was a pretty picture, albeit simple, a Christmas tree against a snowy background

It was nice, but... not really suited to Stiles in his opinion

"No, they're fine, I would've thought you'd want something more playfull though," he mused

Stiles frowned a little, head tilting as he stared down at the cards, making a noise of agreement in the back of his throat

"I guess.... what are you getting?"

"These," Derek shrugged back, holding out the box of cards for Stiles to see and watching curiously as his roommate's eyebrows raised

"Those.... those have puppies wearing santa hats on them Derek..."

"I know,"

Did.... Stiles think he somehow hadn't seen the cards he picked out....?

Stiles looked confused by that for some reason, but ultimately seemed to brush them off

"I think they're great Big Guy, why don't you help me pick some out for myself?"

"Sure," Derek agreed with a small nod, starting to search the shelves for something that was a little more Stiles-esque

He was pretty sure he had seen something with penguins in santa hats around here...

"So uh, one other thing Big Guy, you uh... happen to know where the tree skirts are?"

Derek tilted his head, confusion written clearly across his face

"Don't we already have one?"

"Yeah but I need to look... for Scott, he uh... his got ruined,"

Stiles was a terrible liar, that wasn't in question

Derek just didn't know WHY he was lying...

He had been lying alot lately, acting suspiciously, and it was starting to get concerning

"And tree toppers?"

And thus, the mystery deepened

 

~+~

 

As it turned out, there were more variations of "red and green plaid" than Stiles ever could have imagined, and a SHOCKINGLY few amount of them had "Merry Christmas"- or anything, for that matter- written on them

Stiles had been to six stores and twelve websites and none of the things he sent to Cora were correct

Now though, atleast, he was looking at something similar to a viable option

Apparently one of those online personalization websites had tree skirts, one of wich was red and green plaid

He could write "Merry Christmas" on it if it looked right....

The sound of Cora's text ringtone went off, prompting Stiles to pull the phone from his pocket and check the screen

_That's it! That's the skirt! It's just missing the inscription at the bottom!!_

Unbelievable.....

_Don't worry, I've got that covered_

They didn't have gold thread, unfortunately, only silver

But that was ok, he had an idea of how to turn it gold

There was just one little thing...

He hadn't realized how expensive tree skirts were

 

~+~

 

"That's alot of money kiddo,"

"I know, wich is exactly why I'm asking you for a loan,"

Stiles wasn't proud of it- _at all_ \- but Derek's Christmas was going to be expensive, even if Stiles didn't get all of it, and he didn't exactly make alot of money

He was a private detective who's workload usually amounted to missing cats and the occasional cheating spouse and who sold goods for the supernatural on the side- ranging from magical items like potions and charms to non-magical items like beastiaries and records of white noise for banshees to use

Either way, the point was, he was tight on cash and he wasn't willing to let Derek suffer because of it, no matter how embarrassing the consequences may be

Luckily his father seemed to feel the same way

"Alright.... alright, fine," the sheriff said with a sigh, taking his wallet out of his back pocket

"I get what you're trying to do kid, it's a good thing, just... for the love of god, don't go crazy with it?"

"I won't Dad, promise,"

He just hoped he wouldn't have to...

Maybe everything could be as easy as the tree skirt

 

~+~

 

Everything was NOT as easy as the tree skirt

The deer shouldn't have taken as long as it did, in all honesty

He and Scott had left early and gone to a craft store- where Scott INSISTED they would have all kinds of decorative animals, and to be fair, he was right, they DID have all sorts of animals, including deer

And that was kind of the problem, they sort of had too MANY deer....

"How are none of these right?" Scott muttered quietly, more to himself than to Stiles

Stiles just grunted, leaning his head back and not even bothering to grumble when it hit the shelf behind it

"I don't know, I'm learning that there are more versions of everything than you'd ever want to know about,"

And he had thought the amount of plaid tree skirts had been ridiculous...

"Is that one?" he muttered suddenly, leaning up a little to glance over Scott's shoulder

As it so happened, the store had three aisles of decorative animals, none of them were organized, so it was needless to say that they were exhausted and frustrated enough to just sit down in the middle of the aisle and go limp

Scott slowly looked up, glancing at the brown resin statuette behind him and giving a slight shrug

"I think so..."

"Well, we've tried every other one, might as well.... move your head Scott,"

The wolf ducked as Stiles tiredly aimed his phone and snapped the picture, leaning back again as he sent it off to Cora

He didn't know why he bothered really, it was obvious at this point that it was basically just a wild goose-

_That's it!! That's Laura's deer!!!!_

Or not, apparently, as it were

_All it's missing is the pink bow_

Welp, not unlike the thread that he had to adjust with a gold fabric pen, Stiles had an easy solution to this

"Where are you going?" Scott frowned, glancing up as Stiles forced himself onto his feet

"Get the deer Scotty, we have a winner," he replied vaguely, not even attempting to answer the question as he trudged off towards the gift wrap section

Without even spending five minutes searching, he came up with several spools of pink ribbon, taking a photo and sending it to Cora

_Is one of these the right shade?_

Only a few seconds later, his phone pinged, a sigh of releif exiting his lungs

_The fourth one! That's it!_

Two down, three to go

And Stiles had a feeling he should stock up on craft supplies....

 

~+~

 

"You look like you've had a long day,"

Stiles snorted, not looking up from where he was laying on the couch

"Gee, thanks, I appreciate the observation,"

Derek rolled his eyes, making his way over to the couch and sitting down next to the other man

"I only made that "observation" because I was going to offer you pizza," he explained with a small smirk

Ohh...

Oh pizza sounded good....

"Pizza would be great, thanks," Stiles muttered back, leaning back against the couch a little bit more

"I can do that, usual order?"

"Please," Stiles replied with a quiet sigh, rubbing his head tiredly

"I sense that you've had a rough day, work?" Derek guessed, grabbing the phone from the kitchen

(One thing they had been in unexpected agreement over- they needed a landline)

"Gee, what tipped you off?"

Ofcourse, to be entirely fair, it wasn't JUST work, it was also that blasted deer thing, but he couldn't really talk about that

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Not in detail... just.... Lily wanted me to climb up a tree and rescue her cat because she thinks that's what I do, because I found her cat last month after she got lost, it wasn't THAT big of a deal but I almost fell out of the tree like... twice... and then I had to chase the cat down the road and ... it was just a huge disaster,"

That was putting it mildly, but Stiles didn't feel like going into any further detail than that

Derek, for his credit, looked rather sympathetic, sitting down next to him and gently patting his leg

"Sorry you had to deal with that,"

"It's fine, it's fine, just... annoying and exhausting,"

Derek gave a small, sympathetic nod, head tilted slightly

"Maybe after the holidays things will slow down,"

"Yeah.... I'd be alot more willing to believe that if it wasn't OUR lives you were talking about,"

One way or another it always seemed like they couldn't catch a break

They always had something to do, something to come up and take them away from any kind of releif they were supposed to have

It sucked but Stiles had long since given up on expecting anything different

"Don't be so sure, you never know when something could change," Derek insisted

Before Stiles could even try to argue, the phone in Derek's hand rang- as if to prove his point....

Weird timing...

"This proves nothing," Derek frowned, answering the phone with a pinched look on his face

Stiles had some unfortunate news for him, but this proved EVERYTHING

"Stiles? Someone is calling you from Rockhills Antiques? Why is someone calling from an antique store...?"

The color drained out of his face and Stiles hurried to snatch the phone from Derek before he could learn anything else

Stiles had been calling every antique store in town looking for that freaking tree topper and to no avail

Rockhills said they would look into it further and that was the best hope he had

Ofcourse, he hadn't thought much about giving them his landline instead of his cell number, he actually thought that would be better in case they tried to call wile he was taking care of supernatural crap

Why he thought it would be less risky for them to call the house phone than to call his cell in front of Derek, he wasn't sure, he was alotting it to stress

"Hey um, this is Stiles,"

_"Mr. Stilinski, this is Maria from Rockhills Antiques, I'm calling to let you know that we looked into the tree toppers you asked about, we do have a small collection of vintage angels here if you'd like to come by some time and have a look,"_

FINALLY some good news on this thing...

"Yeah, absolutely! I'll come by tommorrow, thanks,"

He didn't know how much of the conversation Derek could hear without tying to eavesdrop, but he figured it was better not to keep taking chances so he hurried to hang up, handing the phone back to the wolf before crashing down on the couch

"Something for Scott's mom," he lied with a shrug

One benefit to being around werewolves all the time- you learn how to lie convincingly enough that they don't pick up on it

Derek shrugged, grabbing the pizza coupons from the coffee table and starting to look for the phone number

"You should talk to the owner, Mrs. Pattel, she'll haggle prices with you if you're nice enough,"

"Really? You've been there before?"

That kind of took him by surprise, Derek didn't seem like the antique type

Though maybe Mrs. Pattel was a family freind or something...

"No, but... Laura bought a birthday gift for her first girlfreind there once,"

Stiles nodded slowly, letting the information circle around in his head a bit before it finally began to sink in

"Laura had a girlfreind?"

He hadn't meant to sound so shocked but ... well, it was a little surprising

Not because Laura had a girlfreind, but because at this point, pretty much _every_ Hale woman had a girlfreind

Cora had recently mentioned to him something about a girl she had met in Brazil who she was interested in, then there was Laura and both of Derek's moms....

"If I didn't know any better I might start thinking that this was some kind of Hale thing," he commented teasingly

"Mm, well... it's really more of a born wolf thing than specifically a Hale thing,"

Wait, what?

"Wait, what?"

"Born werewolves are inherently pansexual," Derek explained, as if that was just some common knowledge thing that Stiles should automatically know

_What_

"Where the hell has THAT information been all my life!? And what do you mean you're _'inherently pansexual'_ like you're genetically predisposed to a sexuality!?"

"Well.... we sort of are, for born wolves, gender isn't really a factor in our attraction, when we're attracted to someone it's in a much more.... primal.... way than what can be limited by gender, we're attracted to things like scent and heartbeats, we have preferences sure, but in the end we're bound to be attracted to someone on a much more personal level and gender just.... doesn't matter,"

Where was this information all his life!?

"Soooo.... all born wolves?"

"Pretty much,"

"... Including you?"

"Yep, including me,"

Derek Hale was pansexual

....

_Fascinating_

"Why not bitten wolves?"

"Most bitten wolves are already accustomed to the sexuality they had when they were human, and they rarely adapt to attraction the way born wolves do, there are some changes occasionally but for the most part they just stick to how they always were,"

...

_**Fascinating** _

"Is it just born wolves? Or do other species.... feel like this too?"

"I can't say for certain, I only ever knew for sure about wolves, but it's certainly possible, especially with close relatives like coyotes, I wouldn't rule it out,"

Sure, ok, as long as no one is ruling anything out then, right

"Sooooo..... you're pansexual,"

"Very sharp, how did you draw that conclusion?"

Stiles was quiet for a moment, licking his lips

"So uh.... are you ... you know, out? Officially, I mean, you kno-"

"I'm not wearing a sign around my neck, but if anyone asks, I'm not going to lie," Derek explained, finally putting Stiles out of his verbal misery

"Good to know," Stiles said quietly

He was thankfull- possibly more than he really should have been- when Derek only nodded and started dialing the pizza place

He wasn't sure how much of a conversation about sexuality he could take at the moment

 

~+~

 

The antique store was a bust

One of those "sad but true" things Stiles was starting to make peace with in regards to his life in general

It seemed to be happening alot

Now it was officially the second week of December and he was about to drive himself to madness....

Or depression, it really could go either way

"Cheer up Stiles, I'm sure you'll find the rest of the stuff! And if not, you still got two of them! That's a great accomplishment and I'm sure he'll love them!"

As much as Stiles loved Kira's optimism.... it wasn't really helping at this moment

Stiles only groaned, putting a pillow over his head and squeezing his eyes shut as his fingers dug into the fabric

"You can't get any better details from Cora then?" Scott asked with a small frown, setting a few drinks on the coffee table across from the couch

"Not really... she was just so young the last time she saw any of it, her memories are fuzzy even with what she's already told me, and even if they weren't, I'm not sure at this point how much better I could get at finding something this detailed on description alone,"

It would take a miracle at this point.... and he had started with the EASIEST of the three he had left....

"If only there was someone else who had been around as an adult back then, who spent enough time in the Hale house during the holidays that they would be able to remember the details of this stuff..."

Stiles nodded slowly in agreement with Kira, sighing and slowly removing the pillow from where he had had it over his face

"Well... technically, there IS one person like that," Scott commented slowly

Stiles could practically feel the color draining from his face at the mere mention, his stomach sinking as he quickly shook his head

"No.... no, no, no, no way, there is no way in HELL I am going to that psycho for help!"

 

~+~

 

"I cannot believe I am going to this psycho for help...."

So here he sat, at a coffee shop, staring listlessly around at nothing, regretting ALL of his life choices, and waiting for a murderer to come back with his latte

Seriously, what the HELL was his life?

"Stiles, what an... unfortunate surprise, tell me, to what do I owe this displeasure?"

"Cut the crap Peter, you knew I was the one who called you, don't act like this is a surprise,"

Stiles was regretting his choices more and more as the seconds ticked by and he was already close to jumping out the nearest window

Honestly, the things he did for people....

"Believe me, this is no social call, unfortunately I'm in need of your services, and considering we let you run around free I think you owe us to answer when you're called,"

"First of all, I'm not a dog who you can just order around whenever you get the urge, second of all, I EARNED my freedom, thank you very much, and third of all.... who do you want dead?"

_The things Stiles did for people_

"First of all, you _owe_ us, we say 'bark', you say 'how loud?', second of all, you have earned NOTHING, we've kept you out of the looney bin as a PRIVILEGE- one that can easily be revoked, by the way- and third of all, believe this or not, it has nothing to do with death- I know, shocking- but it's about your nephew's happiness, if you have even a SHRED of interest in him left in your body,"

"What _about_ Derek's happiness?"

Well, atleast it was a start

"I'm trying to reconstruct what Derek's Christmases were like when he was a kid, you know, put out some of the stuff he had back then? I've already got the tree skirt and deer, I just need the santa, the tree topper, and the trainset,"

Peter stared at him as if he had lost his mind- wich was probably a good thing, sanity by Peter's standards wasn't something Stiles wanted to test out

"... You're serious," the werewolf said slowly, as if he were only just then coming to that conclusion

"Yeah, dead serious,"

Peter went quiet again, face scrunching up into something that Stiles couldn't quite describe, before letting out a loud sigh

"You're crazy,"

"Coming from you? Thanks, that means alot for my state of sanity,"

Peter's eyes narrowed, but he seemed to have atleast _some_ compassion for the situation, considering the quiet, if not somewhat frustrated, sigh that he released

"I need a pen and papper,"

"What for?"

"So I can draw what you're looking for, Cora obviously hasn't given you enough detail, I figure this will be easier,"

Stiles blinked with surprise, but hurried to grab some napkins from the dispenser on the table (despite the roll of Peter's eye) and pull a pen out of his pocket

"I'm surprised you actually keep a pen on you,"

"Yeah, well, private detective, comes with the territory,"

"Yet you don't have a notepad," Peter noted with a judgemental smirk

"I didn't know I'd need one to have coffee with a psychopath,"

"Always come prepared," the wolf mused, clicking the pen and starting to scribble over one of the napkins

"I came prepared to punch you in the face, does that count?"

The comment made Peter glance up for a breif moment, eyebrows raised

"Do you have a comeback for everything?"

"Pretty much,"

"Ofcourse you do," he practically hummed

Stiles didn't like the amount of amusement in the wolf's voice at that- he was far, _far_ too happy

Stiles didn't like it when Peter was happy, but unfortunately he was going to be forced to sit here until the other man was finished drawing

(He really hoped it atleast looked decent and not like a stick figure or something, he needed something to go on here)

Still...

If he had a born werewolf other than Derek in front of him, and he wouldn't be able to leave within the next few minutes, maybe he could use this to his advantage....

"So.... Derek told me something interesting the other night,"

"Oh? Enlighten me," Peter replied dryly, not even bothering to look up from his napkin

"He said... born wolves are inherently pansexual,"

That brought the older man to pause, eyebrows slowly raising as he looked up at Stiles

"Are you.... asking me...?"

"Well.. I mean you know.... is that... is that true?"

"Do you think Derek lied...?"

"No!! No no... just... I don't know... I guess it's just .. I guess it's just hard to imagine that's all,"

"I don't know why, I'd think if anyone would understand it would be a bisexual,"

It was really a good thing Stiles hadn't picked up his drink yet, if he had, he would have surely dropped it at that

"What!? What the hell do you mean by that?!"

Peter looked legitimately stunned and confused for a moment, before a look of amusement crossed his face instead

"You're bisexual, were you not aware of that?"

Stiles was COMPLETELY offended by that

"Yeah, **I** knew that, how did YOU know that?"

"It's obvious?"

And with the way Peter said that, it felt like he certainly EXPECTED it to be obvious

"No, no it is NOT obvious, ok? I've been bisexual for YEARS and no one has ever noticed!"

Peter snorted behind his coffee at that, all but rolling his eyes

"People have noticed, believe me,"

The "Like who?" lingered on Stiles' tongue, but he didn't actually ask, something told him he didn't even want to know

"How..."

He paused, licking his lips, wondering silently if he really wanted to ask

"How do you know?"

"How do YOU think I know? It's _obvious_ Stiles, you don't exactly hide it well,"

Well that was certainly news to him

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, nose wrinkling and chewing on his lip as he stared down listlessly at the table

He couldn't believe the first person he was talking about this with was _Peter **freaking** Hale_

It was just so.... WRONG.... on so many different levels....

And yet...

"Do you ... do you think Derek knows?"

He hadn't intended it to sound so quiet, so unsure, it had just come out that way completely against his will

Peter inhaled deeply, his attention turning up towards Stiles with a look on his face that was crossed between surprised and ... sympathetic?

No, no way, no- Peter Hale could NOT be "sympathetic", he just wasn't capable of it!

"You should talk to him about it,"

_What was happening!?_

".... What?"

"Derek, you should talk to him about it, he's... good, with this sort of thing,"

There were... so many questions... but Stiles was really freaked out enough that he was having this conversation with Peter _at all_ and frankly was a little scared on what the hell else he might possibly learn about him

But maybe- as terrifying as THIS thought was- Peter was right

Maybe he SHOULD talk to Derek....

 

~+~

 

"Lake creatures.... freaking... LAKE. CREATURES."

Stiles really wasn't pleased about the lake creatures

"They were kelpies Stiles," Derek said with a long, loud sigh, shutting the door to the Jeep and slowly trudging towards the building

"I know that, but I just... ANYTHING in a lake Derek, ANYTHING, I don't care if they were kelpies or mermaids or grindylows-"

_"Grindylows?"_

"They're a real thing!"

Ok so he didn't really know if grindylows were real or not but Harry Potter made them seem pretty convincing

"Sure," Derek snorted, opening the door to the diner and ... weirdly, letting Stiles in

Stiles just heaved a quiet sigh, slipping inside and trekking towards the nearest empty booth, throwing himself into it and spreading out against the back of the seat

He had been on his way to the first store Peter recommended- _ugh_ the fact that he actually had to say that sentence...- when Derek had called and told him about the hoof prints by the lake that Liam found

Obviously he couldn't just ignore that....

To be perfectly fair, it hadn't been that difficult of an experience, especially compared to some of the other crap they had been through

It was nice to have a problem that got cleaned up in a few hours

But that didn't mean that he appreciated being disturbed from his day- especially a long, busy day that would need a recovery period after the Peter thing _alone_ \- to go deal with some angry water-horses!

Oh well, atleast he and Derek had gotten off easy

They were mostly unscathed, a little damp, but uninjured

Liam's hand had been pretty badly hurt after it got stuck to the kelpie's back and Malia hit her head so hard that she was being monitored for a concussion

Everyone had gone to Scott's for the evening to wait out Concussion Watch and make sure that nothing nasty evolved from Liam's slow-healing hand wound, and in the mean time Stiles and Derek had been sent to a local 24-hour diner to pick up some food

"Stiles? Did you hear me?"

Blinking, he glanced up, staring at Derek as the werewolf raised his eyebrows at him

"Um... no?"

"I asked if you wanted coffee wile we wait, since it'll be a little wile for them to fill the order,"

Swallowing, Stiles glanced up at the waitress and gave a slow nod, eyes following lazily as she promised to get the order in and headed back behind the counter

"Are you ok? You didn't touch the kelpie did you?"

He turned his attention back towards the wolf, giving a slow shake of his head and inhaling softly, tiredly

"I'm fine, I didn't touch it, why?"

"You just seem.... off, your magic didn't seem as strong- as focused- earlier.. you seem kind of distant... so I'm just wondering if everything is alright, I know you met with Peter earlier, for some reason, I can smell it,"

Crap, why had he not thought of that?

"I didn't 'meet with him', we ran into eachother at the coffee shop, it was a long line and he was right behind me, TRUST me it was NOT anything social,"

Derek looked like he was trying to figure out if Stiles was lying or not- since he had learned over the years to atleast somewhat disguise his lies, the little ones that he felt no guilt over were relatively easy to hide- and luckily it looked like he bought it

"You still seem ... distant, are you alright?"

It was a good question

The conversation he had had with Peter earlier had unnerved him to a point, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about it all day, to not be tempted by the idea of getting this off of his chest and talking to Derek about it

It had lead to some distraction on his part and it was by pure luck that said distraction hadn't gotten anyone hurt- or worse...

He needed to do this

He needed to get this off of his chest before it drove him crazy

"Actually uh... there... is one thing I kinda wanted to... talk to you about,"

Derek's eyebrows raised carefully, head tilting to the side with curiosity

It was probably just best to come on out with it

To just make it quick, not beat around the bush, just say it and get it over with

"I'm bi,"

It was said in a rush, breathlessly, hurriedly, he wasn't even sure if it had sounded somewhat legible, especially considering that Derek hadn't said anything and didn't exactly seem surprised

The silence was tense and terrifying, atleast on Stiles' end, and he couldn't have been more relieved when Derek gave him a small, gentle smile, and leaned a little further across the table

"Ok,"

...

That was it?

"... 'Ok'? Is.... is that it? That's all?"

Derek seemed quiet for another moment before his lips twitched in what seemed to be a thoughtfull manner, head tilting to the other side

"...Do you want some pie?"

What....

Was this what coming out was always like?

"Um... yeah, I mean... sure, I can always eat pie but is this... you know.... IT.. for the .. I mean... I just came out to you dude, you realize that don't you?"

Derek looked mildly surprised for a second, before it seemed to dawn on him somehow

"Oh you- ... was this.... am I your first ...?"

"Pretty much," Stiles said quickly, trying to staunch the proverbial bleeding here as Derek awkwardly floundered for a gracefull way to explain this

"Well... then let me be the first to congratulate you," he said with a small smile, glancing up as the waitress returned with their coffee and set the cups in front of them

"Could we get two peices of apple pie please? Thanks,"

Admittedly, it never stopped amusing him to hear Derek say "please and thank you", no matter how often it happened, it just went so violently against the grunting, broody image he always tried to portray

Though as time moved on he seemed to shed that image less and less and now things like Derek Hale eating apple pie no longer ticked a box on Stiles' radar at all

He barely even noticed when the waitress promised to bring their pies and promptly headed back behind the counter, he was too lost in his own thoughts

He had just come out to someone for the first time in his life

It was Derek- who, incidentally, happened to be pansexual-

And now they were having pie

Sometimes, Stiles really didn't understand his life

"So.... can I ask why you came out to me first? Or... is that personal?"

"It's... not personal, you can ask,"

Although, in all honesty, Stiles wasn't completely sure that he could answer, but that was a different problem

"Is it because I'm the only other person you know who isn't straight or gay and ... sort of borders on a sexuality in between?"

Well, now that he mentioned it....

"That's part of it, I guess, I mean, you know, people may not really blink anymore when you're gay in Beacon Hills but being bi.... it's still..."

"Different?" Derek guessed

"Trust me, I know,"

Ofcourse, Derek WOULD know, and people understood and accepted being pan even less than being bi...

"Right, so... you know, everybody else kinda just bats for one team, so..."

Derek nodded slowly, taking a sip of his coffee and seeming to let it roll around in his head for a moment before speaking again

"So... that's part of it, what's the rest of it?"

That was a good question, what WAS the rest of it?

That was the part Stiles himself didn't quite understand either...

"Well... remember when I came to you last summer to .. ya' know... get help with the raven stuff?"

The summer after senior year Stiles had told everyone he was going to some special FBI training thing, but it hadn't been true

Instead he had managed to track Derek down where he had been temporarily staying in New York and sought out his help

Stiles had known for years that he wasn't quite normal, that there was something inhuman about him, he had just hoped it would stay dormant for a wile longer

But after the nogitsune things started to develop and then once he had been taken by the hunt it just.... snowballed

He knew the only way to get a handle on it without causing some kind of destruction in his wake was to leave, to find Derek and ask for help

He couldn't stay in Beacon Hills at that time, he couldn't put more stress on everyone else when they were trying to get ready for college and stuff, he just.... couldn't

So he had shown up on Derek's doorstep one night asking for help and things more or less spiraled from there

He learned what he was- a raven, of all things- and started learning about his powers- what they were and how to use them- and then about three months into it they started tracking down Kate again

Well, "Again" for Derek, as that was what he HAD been doing before Stiles came along and got in his way, but that's not the point

Then the Anuk-Ite thing happened and they came back to Beacon Hills and just.... decided to stay

Derek decided to build a house on the preserve again and in the mean time got an apartment in a different building

Stiles decided to move in with him because the months they spent living together between Derek's New York apartment and the various motels and hotels on the road had been some of the best of Stiles' life, even if he wouldn't admit that out loud

And they had... bonded over that time in a way that Stiles really still couldn't explain

Stiles had trusted Derek for years, but this....

This was just on a different level

"I thought you only came to me about that because I was the only one you could go to outside of Beacon Hills," the wolf stated, a perplexed look on his face

Sure, ofcourse, leave it to Derek to make things difficult

"Well... that's part of it but... look, dude, I came out to you before anyone else TWICE now, once about my powers, and once about my sexuality, what do you think that means?"

Derek looked genuinely confused, in the sort of way that almost made Stiles feel bad for him

"It means that ... that I trust you more than anyone, look you may be a born wolf but... that doesn't mean that you wouldn't have deemed me a menace to society and tried to kill me or... or judged me for what I am or whatever.... and you may be pan but it doesn't mean that you're automatically going to accept just anyone into your queer circle, you know? I came out to you first ... partly because I knew my odds were better with you than other people but.... mostly because I just trust you more than I trust anyone else,"

Derek looked stunned

Absolutely and completely stunned

To the point that he didn't even notice when the waitress set the pies down in front of them a moment later and walked off to finish the rather large to-go order they had placed earlier

"You trust me that much?" he asked quietly, his voice soft and .. almost meek, in a way

"Yeah," Stiles nodded, grabbing his fork and digging into the pie, mostly as a distraction rather than anything else

"Yeah I do,"

The shocked look on Derek's face remained, but also softened a little, as if in understanding

"I'm glad it's mutual then,"

Honestly, it took a few minutes for that to click with Stiles, to realize what he was saying, but once he got it...

Well, he couldn't help smiling right back

 

~+~

 

"I hope Derek appreciates this,"

Stiles winced as her sharp tone practically cut through him, huddling a little bit better underneath his umbrella as the two of them hurried towards the entrance to the store

The rain was absolutely POURING, like a freaking FLOOD

Because _ofcourse_ it was

He had convinced Lydia to come with him so that she could do some Christmas shopping of her own and help him search for the rest of Derek's list, focusing on the tree topper for now, but ofcourse life had a "funny" way of appreciating things like that because now it was _pouring rain_

It was an absolute frog choker and they were stuck right in the middle of it because _ofcourse_ they were

Needless to say Lydia was NOT happy

"I'm sure he will," Stiles huffed back

.... He _hoped_ he would

He hoped that this would be one of the best Christmas gifts ever and not just, you know, depressing....

He couldn't worry about that now though, he had too many other things on his mind, like getting them out of the rain for example

"Thank GOD we're finally out of that rain,"

Yeah... as if life hadn't thrown them enough of a curveball with the rain to begin with, the antique store they had gone to had a pretty full parkinglot, meaning that they had a fair distance to walk to get to any kind of shelter....

"No kidding," Stiles huffed back, shaking his umbrella out and staring behind him, through the windows of the nice antique store

...

Yeaaah.... these people were going to love them for treading rain water and filth into the place....

Oh well, not much they could do, so with that settling his mind he opened the door for Lydia, letting her in and apologizing again for dragging her out into this before following her into the antique store

"And you're SURE that this place has those tree toppers?"

"Well.... not SURE sure but I have it on good authority,"

Lydia stared at him with a look of concerned disbeleif

"And what 'good authority' would that be?"

Stiles paused, nose wrinkling slightly as he shook off the last of the stray water from the umbrella

He couldn't exactly say that Peter told him, he wasn't in the mood for the lecture _or_ the skepticism that would follow

"Some well done Googling, unfortunately that's pretty much the only resource we've got for this stuff, unless you have a better idea,"

And judging by the frustrated look on Lydia's face.... she definitely didn't have a better idea

"Alright then, it's settled, let's go,"

Despite the frustrated sigh echoing out of the banshee's lungs, she did indeed follow behind as Stiles started the search for the antique angel

"You know Stiles, this place is huge,"

"Really? Gee, I hadn't noticed,"

Lydia rolled her eyes, placing a hand on his shoulder to stop him from going any further

"This place is huge," she repeated

"SO I think we should probably just _ask_ someone if they have any of these angels before we start looking for them, figure out what section they'd be in- at the absolute LEAST- instead of looking around the entire store,"

Yeah... ok, fair enough, she had a point about that one

He only gave a small nod, allowing her to step ahead of him and lead him towards the check-out counter

"Hey there, can I help you find something?" the woman on the other side asked, sweeping her long black hair over her shoulder as she turned towards them

"Actually yeah, I was told that you guys sold Bella Grace tree-toppers, I was wondering if you had any of this one in stock?" Stiles asked, handing the woman- Anissa, according to her nametag- the drawing that Peter had done

(Stiles would never admit it out loud, and he hated that he was even admitting it in his head, but Peter's sketch was actually pretty good...)

"Oh yeah, I know what you're talking about, thing is... I'm not totally sure if we have that model... but if we did there's one place it'd be, just follow me," she offered, giving a sort of half-wave gesture as she stepped out from behind the counter and started leading the two of them down one of the center aisles

"We got in ALOT of those things about twelve years ago, this sweet little old lady who used to make them passed away and her granddaughter brought 'em in, she'd had a storage room full of them! Ofcourse our inventory has gone down over the years as people buy them, they're surprisingly popular,"

Well, she was certainly right with the word "surprising", they definitely weren't the most attractive things Stiles had ever seen

But if you were looking for a "classic" vintage angel, the sort of thing you'd see in the 40s or so, those would probably fit the image to a T

"You haven't seen any recently though?" Stiles asked with a bit of concern

Sure, he knew that it wasn't the be-all-and-end-all of possibly finding the thing here but it was definitely not a good sign

"Afraid not, but don't let that worry you, I really don't work much with the inventory, that's really more my sister Rochelle's territory, especially the vintage stuff, she loves that sort of thing,"

"Yeah? I'm not much of a vintage fan myself, but my roommate... well, he has a special connection to this angel,"

"I figured as much, if you're looking for something this specific you're either a collector or are buying it for someone else, considering you didn't know the name of the model you're looking for, I'm pinning my guess on a gift,"

"You pinned correctly," Stiles grinned back, a slight wave of releif coming over him when he spotted the bookshelf full of boxes in front of him

They seemed to have a pretty large stock of them, wich made sense from what Anissa had said earlier, but still... there was an _entire bookshelf full_ , there HAD to be a good chance of this one particular one being there right?

Stiles certainly hoped so...

"Thought as much, I'm pretty good at reading people, now let's see.... the model you're looking for is called Ava, if we did have a boxed version, she'd be right here between Ashley and Beatrice... unfortunately..."

Stiles' shoulders sagged, a look of clear disappointment crossing his face, this was the only place Peter had suggested and when he looked on Ebay he hadn't found any, he could always try digging a little deeper into Google but that was far, far from a gurantee....

"BUT we might have a loose one in the back, there's also a cabinet here where we have a few loose ones, but I'm not sure if there's an Ava there,"

"Thanks, we'll check the cabinet then," Stiles replied

"Not a problem, I'll check storage and then be back here soon," Anissa smiled, heading off towards the back as Stiles bent down to open the cabinet containing the rest of the tree toppers

There weren't exactly alot of them, wich didn't do great things for his confidence that they would end up finding this thing...

"I don't see it..." Lydia sighed softly, backing away from the cabinet to give Stiles a look of his own, not that he really needed to see, he trusted Lydia's eyes

"Great," Stiles grumbled with a frustrated sigh, rubbing his temples in frustration

He supposed he'd just have to start calling antique stores and search the web a little bit better, he only hoped he'd be able to afford whatever he came up with...

"I have good news and bad news,"

Stiles glanced up from the cabinet he had been looking at, eyes lighting up with excitement and releif when he saw Anissa standing behind them holding one of the treetoppers

"The good news is we do have ONE Ava in stock.... the bad news is..."

The smile faltered, excitement starting to dim as he watched Anissa adjust the angel to show how damaged it was

One wing was bent almost in half, the face had a scratch on it, the hair was .... a wreck.... and a finger was chipped off

"Looks like this is one of the ones that got damaged right out of the factory,"

"It'll be fine," Lydia said suddenly, wich... sort of took Stiles by surprise honestly

"I'm sure we can fix it, I know a trick for the hair and the wing, and I'm sure Stiles could wip up some magic for the rest,"

... Riiiight....

He DID have magic...

He wasn't sure if it would work on this or not but it was a chance he was more than willing to take

"We'll take it," he declared with a relieved smile

"Oh good! I'll hold it up front for you until you're done shopping," Anissa said brightly, hurrying back towards the counter

"Thanks," Stiles grinned back, taking a step after her... only for Lydia to tug on his hoodie and keep him held back

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Um-"

"You promised me that if I followed you on this expedition of your's you would help me finish my shopping, now it's time to pay up,"

The thing is, Stiles hadn't known the store was NEARLY this large when he first offered her the exchange, and now looking at the sheer size and amount of crap that was crammed in here.....

He had the terrible feeling that he would soon have to say goodbye to being able to walk without AGONY in every step....

 

~+~

 

Welp, Stiles had been right

Four hours in that freaking place with Lydia and now he felt like he was dead from the waist down

Yet he persisted, trudging along out of the jeep, carrying his bag with him as he carefully opened the door and started inside... only to be suddenly shoved back out by a very flustered looking werewolf

"Stiles... I didn't expect you back so soon,"

" _Soon?_ DUDE I've been gone for like six hours!"

Because atleast Lydia had given him lunch before returning him

..

Or was it early dinner...?

Oh well, didn't matter, the point was she had fed him

"I know but... just... you can't come in the house right now,"

...

Wut

"Ok here's a question... why the hell not?"

"Because... it's... I'm doing something... and I'm not finished... come back in two hours,"

"Oh come on Derek! I've been on my feet all day! I'm EXHAUSTED! Just let me in!!"

To his credit, atleast Derek had the decency to look apologetic, but he didn't relent

"Sorry, I'll call you when I'm done,"

If Stiles hadn't been so freaking tired, he would have fought a little harder

And if his feet hadn't been so freaking sore, Derek would have a kicked shin by now

 

~+~

 

"Honestly, who does he think he is!? Shutting me out of my own house... what the hell!?"

"I guess he doesn't want you to see what he's doing,"

Well, that was certainly stating the obvious

"Gee, no kidding Scotty, but what the hell could that possibly be? What is he doing? Making a secret porno in our living room?"

"I don't think Derek is the type to make porn in your living room Stiles..." the wolf said slowly

Wich kind of made Stiles wonder where Scott thought Derek _would_ make porn but he was too annoyed to bother asking

"Then what could he be doing in there that he's being so secretive about!?"

"Who knows? Maybe he's wrapping your Christmas gift,"

"I doubt that Scotty,"

Scott shrugged, setting down his video game controller and standing up with a stretch

"I'm sure you'll figure it out, I'm gonna get another Coke, you want one?"

"Yeah, that'd be great Scotty, thanks,"

Scott gave a thumb's up, heading out of the room and leaving Stiles to give a long, loud sigh as he stared listlessly at the screen in front of him

He had alot on his mind... _too much_ on his mind...

He had hoped coming here to play video games with Scott wile he waited on Derek to finish... whatever the hell he was doing... would help alleviate some of the stress, but it didn't seem to be doing the best job of it, in fact, if anything, he felt worse

Time was moving at what felt like a cheetah's pace and he still had two things left on the list for Derek before he could call his mission complete

Just thinking about it had his stomach twisting and turning, and he only hoped the last two items on the list would be easier than he anticipated

 

~+~

 

"Why am I here again?"

It was a valid question, but Stiles would have thought that Peter would have just assumed the reasoning, what with the last time they spoke

"Still needing help with Derek's Christmas gift,"

The werewolf groaned, rolling his eyes as if even the concept it's self were some sort of chore

"What is it that you need from me exactly? I thought I already helped you,"

"Yeah, well, I need more help, as much as it pains me to say it," Stiles replied, reaching into his messenger bag and pulling out a sketchpad and a box of colored pencils

"... What the hell is that?"

"Well, Peter, these are called _pencils_ , they're used fo-"

"WHY are they here?" he clarified with a huff

"Because I need you to draw me a more detailed sketch of that Santa that Cora had, I'm talking about colors and everything, not just scribbles on a napkin,"

"And my compensation for this would be...?"

"I thought we went over this last time,"

"Yes well dime store blackmail only pays for me once, it isn't going to work a second time,"

"You are unbelievable, you know that? Jeez... couldn't you just help your nephew for the sake of _helping your nephew_?"

"I could... but I'd prefer to have compensation,"

Stiles exhaled deeply through his nose, fighting the urge to lean over and punch Peter in the face, it was a powerfull urge but somehow, SOMEHOW, Stiles' sheer willpower was stronger

"What do you want? Money?"

"You can't afford me, I was thinking more along the lines of something that you have that I can't get many other places..... namely, magic,"

Ofcourse it would come down to that

Ravens had some pretty powerfull magical skills, and even though Stiles was still practically a fledgling, he was already quite powerfull

Peter wasn't the first to seek out his magic and he more than likely wouldn't be the last either...

"Alright... look, I've been working on a prototype lately that will- in theory- be a universal antidote for wolfsbane, no more looking for the specific strand in order to burn out the poison, again, it's just a prototype so I'm not totally sure if it's going to work or not yet but... it's something, I'll give you the first bottle I make, just... I just need to do this, ok? I want to give this to Derek and if it means selling my soul to you then I guess I have no choice now do I?"

Peter looked a little skeptical, or maybe just hesitant, but ultimately heaved a sigh and reached for the colored pencils

"I don't know how a more detailed version is going to help you track this thing down,"

"Because I'm not tracking it down anymore, I'm having one made,"

Peter stopped, his hand hovering over the sketchpad as he stared up at Stiles with a total lack of amusement

"You MUST be joking,"

"Nope, Deputy Grant's mom does those reborn dolls, you know, where they take cheap baby dolls and make them look all realistic? So I asked her to do something similar for me, to modify one of those little santas and make it look like Derek's, it'll be alot easier than reborning a doll, all she really has to do is make some mods to the clothes, props, and a little bit of different paint to the face, so I paid her a little extra to make sure it's done by Christmas and viola! Let me tell you, it's alot easier than spending the rest of my life looking for this thing,"

The sheer amount of different little decorative santas in the world was absolutely beyond concerning, he probably could have spent the next several weeks searching and never would have found the thing- or even made progress for that matter

"So I just need you to make the thing as detailed as you possibly can so I can give that to Mrs. Grant and get the santa made, think you can do that?"

"Yes Stiles, I can do that," Peter huffed with dry sarcasm

"Ok, good, just making sure,"

"I can't believe I'm actually going to risk sounding invested enough to ask this but... have you really managed to get the other four gifts already?"

"Well... three of them, I was saving the trainset for last, since I figure it'll be the hardest to find, so... can you tell me anything, anything at all about the train set besides what you already said? 'Cause you really didn't give me much before,"

"You have a week left before Christmas, are you really going to try to find this thing in a week? Even if you did somehow magically find the right train you'd almost certainly have to order it off of the internet, shipping time ALONE-"

"Yeah I know all of that but I'm gonna work something out ok? Just... I just need more to go on than a metal silver train that plays music,"

He never should have let Peter get away with that description in the first place but he had been tired at the time and not quite on his game

The werewolf heaved a loud, low sigh, his pencil tapping slightly against the sketchpad

"I honestly don't remember much about the train it's self... but I do remember a fair amount about what Selena went through to GET that train," he noted slowly, setting his pencil down and taking a sip of coffee

"Derek was two at the time, back then we had some cheap plastic trainset that Selena's brother had given her for Christmas the year before, Derek loved that thing for some reason, couldn't take his eyes off of it, atleast... until Laura destroyed it, she was a very rambunctious child and rolled into the tree about a week after putting it up, crushing the trainset, poor Derek was devastated, he cried for an hour, and everytime he saw the tree for the next several weeks he stared at it as if it had personally offended him, Talia and Selena finally got sick enough of seeing his pittifull little face that they decided to get another train set- a quality one this time, that would stand up a little better to werewolf rough-housing, they found this little train store in Pasadena- did you know train stores were even a THING? I mean of all the-"

"Peter, focus," Stiles said briskly

Peter didn't seem especially pleased by that, but he continued on anyway

"Right, Selena was intending to go up there the week before Christmas but... something or other happened, I don't even remember what it was anymore, hunters, another pack, just... something that kept Talia busy and Selena babysitting the kids, so she was stuck at home, I mean... Laura was a bull in a china shop at that age, she would have destroyed the entire train store, and Derek- although well-mannered- was a two-year-old, no one wants to take a road trip with a two-year-old, especially one that gets carsick,"

"Wait a second... Derek gets carsick?"

Peter rolled his eyes, clearly unimpressed

"Until the age of nine, he also used to suck his thumb and cry whenever Talia couldn't find gummy sharks, now can we move on?"

That really hadn't been the point Stiles had been trying to get at but whatever....

"Anyway, it wasn't until the day before Christmas Eve that things were finally back to normal, Selena got up early that morning and drove to Pasadena herself, barely making it there before the store closed, she managed to convince the owner to stay open a little longer for her but she was having the hardest time finding the right one, something that was nice enough not to crack like a twig wile not being so expensive that it wasn't kid-freindly, she was taking too long and the owner was just getting ready to close, she was getting frustrated... and then, she heard 'Silver Bells' come over the radio, and sure enough, when she looked down, there was a train set right in front of her called the Silver Bells Express, she thought it was a sign and bought it immediately, she slept in a motel that night and then drove back to Beacon Hills the next morning, she managed to get home on Christmas Eve, a couple of hours past the kids' bedtime, but Derek had refused to go to bed before she got home, when she walked in he, Laura, and Talia were on the couch watching some cartoon about monsters and card games-"

"Oh my God, Derek was a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh?"

"Again, not relevant, the point was that it was past their bedtime, Selena hadn't been counting on them being up when she walked in but.. for her own safety she decided to go ahead and show Derek the train set, putting it under the tag of a birthday gift so Laura wouldn't get jealous, and Derek.... he LOVED that thing... every year we put it up he insisted on being the one to put together the train set, he hated taking it down, and every year... I would catch him just staring at it with wonder and amazement, I never did understand what he saw in it, none of us ever figured that out, but he loved it, that was for sure, even the last year, he seemed so.. at peace... staring at it, anyway.. that's all I remember, really,"

"You know, all of that info would've been like... MEGA helpfull to have from the beginning,"

"Well how was I supposed to know you wanted the entire expose'? We still don't have any other clues about what it looks like,"

"No... but it's called Silver Bells, that's a lead we can go on,"

Hopefully it would be the only lead they needed...

 

~+~

 

As it turns out, identifying the train set wasn't that hard once Stiles knew what it was called

It was actually tracking it down for purchase- at a price he could afford- that he was really having a problem with

So, fun fact: Train sets are hellishly expensive

Older train sets that they don't make anymore?

BEYOND hellishly expensive

He had tried finding and contacting the train store from years ago, but apparently it had closed a wile back, leaving him with no solution there either

He spent four days searching as hard as he possibly could and finally on the fifth day he actually made some progress

Well....

As much as he hated to admit it, _Peter_ made some progress

"You found one!?"

_"Unbelievably yes, I tracked down the old owner of the train store that Selena went to, it turns out that when he went out of business he didn't sell everything, he was left with alot of peices, most of wich were too valuable to just give away or sell for cheap at a yard sale, he's never been good with the internet so he hasn't advertised, but he has a few things he's willing to sell,"_

"Including the Silver Bells Express," Stiles concluded with a relieved grin

_"Right, there's just one problem,"_

"Let me guess, he's still living in Pasadena? So now I have to drive all day if I'm going to have any hope at all of getting this train by Christmas?"

_"... Actually yes, quite a big coincidence, you taking the same route that Selena took,"_

"Yeah, I'm familiar with the way that fate likes to bite me where it hurts, this sort of irony is EXACTLY the kind of thing I'm used to,"

Unfortunate as that was....

_"Are you really going to do this?"_

Stiles glanced out of his bedroom door, watching Derek as the wolf carefully slid a nicely wrapped box under the Christmas tree, before turning his attention back to the phone call at hand

"Yeah... I am,"

There was no question in his mind

He was going to give Derek the best Christmas he possibly could- and that would be that

 

~+~

 

Peter really hadn't been exaggerating when he had said that Stiles would be going the same route Derek's mom had gone all those years ago

Surely enough, it had taken him pretty much all day to get to Pasadena and all day on Christmas Eve to get back, it was by no means a fun journey

Derek had called him several times and each time he had had to repeat the same lie about where he was and what he was doing and he was just glad that he was a skilled enough liar that the werewolfy lie detection skills really didn't work on him over the phone

Now he was finally pulling into the driveway, it was only a few hours until midnight, and he was hoping with every fiber of his being that Derek wasn't waiting for him in the living room, that he would have the chance to go to his room and wrap the train set before-

"There you are,"

No such luck...

He hurried to hide the bag behind his back, though he was sure that it wouldn't do much to conceal it, and he really, really wished he had figured out some kind of invisibility spell or something by now...

"Yep, here I am," Stiles replied a bit anxiously as he walked towards the living room where Derek currently was

"Scott tried to call, apparently yo-..." Derek stopped abruptly, his eyes caught on the box that Stiles had been desperately trying to haul to his room, oh well, now that he saw it...

"Um, happy birthday, this was supposed to wait until tommorrow with the others but it's kinda pointless now," he noted, clearing his throat as he carefully handed the box over to Derek

The wolf took the box gingerly, his eyes wide and his mouth still slightly open

"Stiles.... this is..."

"The trainset from your childhood?"

"But.... how did you know?"

"I uh... have my resources,"

Yeah, telling him about Peter was one thing that would definitely, DEFINITELY not be happening, thank you very much

Derek would live in the dark with that one for sure

"I... I don't know what to say...."

Stiles smiled softly, sitting down in front of him on the edge of the coffee table

Hopefully he liked the other gifts half as much as he liked this one

"You don't have to say anything, I mean, except 'thank you' I guess, it's a gift so-"

Stiles didn't get the chance to finish that sentence, a moment into it Derek's lips had found his

It was a passionate, greatfull kiss

One that lacked smoothness but made up for in sheer emotion, and Stiles found himself kissing right back, just as easily, chasing the sensation of Derek's lips when the wolf finally pulled away

Turns out, that was much better than any average ol' "Thank you"

"So.... can uh... can another one of those be my Christmas present?"

Derek smiled softly, leaning in closer and pressing their foreheads together

"It doesn't need to be a holiday to have one of those," he promised quietly, grinning slightly

"Besides, I spent way too much time trying to wrap your gift last week to exchange it for a _kiss_ ,"

Wow, so Scott had been right, good for him

"Good to know," Stiles smirked, giving him a light, slow kiss in return

If it wasn't a holiday-only thing, then why hold back?

"Merry Christmas Derek, and happy birthday,"

Derek smiled gently, closing his eyes

"Merry Christmas..." he paused suddenly, nose twitching as he glanced down into the bag

".... Are those gummy sharks?"


End file.
